“Every great tusker killed by poachers is an irreplaceable loss to the gene pool and does irrevocable damage to the ancient knowledge carried forward from these sentient beings.”

He’s certainly right; with a little over 20 left in the wild, the great tuskers are rapidly dying out, and it’s estimated that 100 African elephants are killed every single day.

When Satao II was found, he still had his tusks intact and conservationists believe it’s because the poachers didn’t have enough time to remove his tusks and lug them out of the park.

This poor elephant died in vain, though it’s better that the ivory from his tusks, which is worth about $100,000, is not circulating throughout the illegal trade.

“I am pretty gutted really,” Richard Moller, cofounder and CEO of the Tsavo Trust, told The Guardian. “This particular elephant was one that was very approachable, one of those easy old boys to find.”

Satao II is suspected to have been killed by poisoned arrows, so when two men armed with an AK-47, bows, and 12 poisoned arrows two weeks after his death, they were certain that they caught the poachers.

Sadly, the original Satao died in 2014 in the same way, with poisoned arrows and all so poachers could take his huge, iconic tusks.

“The death of Satao II shows that the threat to elephants — even those who are well-known and well-studied — remains tragically pervasive across the elephant’s range,” Adam M. Roberts, CEO of Born Free USA, told The Dodo.

“The thirst for ivory persists, despite widespread awareness of the plight of elephants and the risks to their long-term conservation.”

Though China has gone to great lengths to ban the trade in their country by the end of 2017, where the majority of the demand originates from, the persistent poaching has not yielded.

If you would like to help with Tsavo Trust’s efforts to put an end to poaching, you can donate here.

This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. CSGlobe republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources, and are not produced by CSGlobe. Any views or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author/source presented below, and do not necessarily reflect the position of CSGlobe or its staff.

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